"China bomb" tires - all the cheap no-name tires

[ExtraSlow]

So looking for a set of tires for my truck. "decent" load range E tires are going to be a thousand bucks minimum.

A few sellers in Kijiji are hawking various sketchy brands like "royal terrain" etc for around six hundred bucks for a set of four. Clearly these aren't going to be to the same specifications as Michelin or Goodyear, but how bad are they?

I am well under the weight limit for load range E tires, even when fully loaded for camping. And I don't need much in terms of off road traction. It's pretty mild usage.

Would love to find a set of take-off from someone who went with gnarly new tires or rims, but that's a tough search.

Suggestions?

[Ekliptix]

The kijiji stuff are probably these tires: http://unclewiener.com/product/suretrac-mt200-wide-climber-tires/
Same: http://www.suretractire.com/all-terrain-a-t.html

I have no experience with them, but I try not to cheap out on tires.

[jwslam]

GTR_Auto hooked me up with 2 sets of MAXTREK tires. No clue how they compare but I'm assuming he could chime in. Or tirebomb?

[ExtraSlow]

I should clarify that I did talk to tirebob and his cheapest tire, still a brand I hadn't heard of, is nowhere near as cheap as the Kijiji ones.

My preference is still to find some used tires, but not taking anything off the table.

[KRyn]

Cheaping out on the only part of your car that is in contact with the road seems like a poor decision. With that said however, I had a buddy that ran some cheap China summer tires for two years and didn't have any issues with them. I am interested in what you end up deciding to do.

[Skrilla]

what size are you after? I have some takeoffs here that are 265 18s I believe

[ExtraSlow]

Wheels are 17".
Stock size is 265/70r17, but 275 and 285 widths should be fine.

[FraserB]

I think I have two takeoffs in that size at home, they are 17s for sure. Brand new off my Sierra and a buddies. Find two more and you’d be golden. Michelin LTX I think, whatever was stock on those trucks

I’ll shoot you a PM once I check.

[HiTempguy1]

I towed 14k lbs across the country on 235/85R16 LT chinese tires. They were "good enough", nothing I was afraid of, and I got them "used" but brand new off kijiji for something silly like $200 or $400.

End of the day, the tires have to meet certain standards to be sold for onroad use here. I will say that their sidewalls are not nearly as stiff as the typical "name brand" manufacturers, trailer definitely wobbled coming out of corners on the highway that required higher pressures to get rid of.

Wear is also not nearly as good as say a set of Michelin LTX's, but it is what it is. If you are planning on selling the truck like you've done the past couple years, I'd put the chinese tires on it no problem. What brand of tires doesn't affect resale, but tread depth certainly does is what I've found.

[ExtraSlow]

I think I have two takeoffs in that size at home, they are 17s for sure. Brand new off my Sierra and a buddies. Find two more and you’d be golden. Michelin LTX I think, whatever was stock on those trucks

I’ll shoot you a PM once I check.
If those are load range E, I'm in like Gestalt on a discussion of economics.

[GTR_Auto]

I have good luck with them. Especially for winter. Cheap set of winters is for sure better than an all season

Send me a msg with sizing and I can let you know some pricing!

[tirebob]

Some Chinese made tires are definitely better than others. I have experienced many over the years and certain brands are quite reliable even if a bit underwhelming. Generally speaking, as weird as it sound, avoid the Chinese brands that sound like a google translation. I have found that if the companies cannot spend enough time to actually research the meaning of a name, they probably have spent just as much time in the development of a decent tire. Lol! I have used a few with goofy names that have surprised me as being relatively ell liked, but not near as many as are produced.

Most of the ones you see pop up on Kijiji are the bottom of the barrel and are the types of units that a company had nothing but trouble with so they are looking to blow them out with little or no recourse if the consumer hates them. I won't say that is always 100% guaranteed to be so, but generally Kijiji is not the sales platform for new products that are well received and being sold based on through reputable retailers.

Lines that have been proven to be relatively decent for the dollar to me and many others in the industry I know, and have been around for a long time, include GT Radial, Maxxis, Sailun, Blacklion, Starfire, Rovelo as well as a few others have seen come and go. By no means am I saying these are amazing tires compared to genuinely great tires, but bang for buck they generally are satisfactory.

A good rule of thumb for the cheap stuff is to buy them from someone who you can be pretty certain will be there for you if you have any real issues crop up that needs warranty because the container load cheap guys are here today and gone tomorrow and probably will not be able to back up the product they sell. Stick to the stuff that has real national distribution and not just random buys from alibaba.

[ExtraSlow]

Good explanation and also thanks for the quote on Friday. Given the very few kms I put on them I'm going to look for some decent used tires.

[JfuckinC]

What about all the truck tires I keep seeing on Facebook, any of those good? Comforser Compasal Haida etc.. I Run Toyo’s And they’re great but the replacement cost is like double those brands haha..

They’re sold from actually shops I guess:dunno:

[Thaco]

i hate the term chinabombs, the tires are not the problem, improper or inappropriate use is the problem.

[r3ccOs]

Some Chinese made tires are definitely better than others. I have experienced many over the years and certain brands are quite reliable even if a bit underwhelming. Generally speaking, as weird as it sound, avoid the Chinese brands that sound like a google translation. I have found that if the companies cannot spend enough time to actually research the meaning of a name, they probably have spent just as much time in the development of a decent tire. Lol! I have used a few with goofy names that have surprised me as being relatively ell liked, but not near as many as are produced.

Most of the ones you see pop up on Kijiji are the bottom of the barrel and are the types of units that a company had nothing but trouble with so they are looking to blow them out with little or no recourse if the consumer hates them. I won't say that is always 100% guaranteed to be so, but generally Kijiji is not the sales platform for new products that are well received and being sold based on through reputable retailers.

Lines that have been proven to be relatively decent for the dollar to me and many others in the industry I know, and have been around for a long time, include GT Radial, Maxxis, Sailun, Blacklion, Starfire, Rovelo as well as a few others have seen come and go. By no means am I saying these are amazing tires compared to genuinely great tires, but bang for buck they generally are satisfactory.

A good rule of thumb for the cheap stuff is to buy them from someone who you can be pretty certain will be there for you if you have any real issues crop up that needs warranty because the container load cheap guys are here today and gone tomorrow and probably will not be able to back up the product they sell. Stick to the stuff that has real national distribution and not just random buys from alibaba.

werd.

My neighbor is running http://www.sailuntires.ca/PLT/AT.html on his Duramax trucks and I took one out and was pleasantly surprised on the traction in just 2WD on stock size.

That said, even though its Eply, the truck is a 8foot box'd crew cab so it has plenty of weight... but he does routinely tow form trailers of 12k plus and they are lasting as long as anything else he's had other than the LT/X defenders... but they are significantly cheaper.

Nexen is another brand that came out of nowhere and is gaining a rather large marketshare... Khumo was in the same boat in the late 90's and only through grassroot racing IMO did its popularity grew.

[infamous]

i'm not sure if they do truck tires, but I've had some awesome success with delinte tires, had a set on my accord wagon, gs300, ls400, and now my accord wagon again. lol. for as cheap as they are they handle well and corner good and you don't have to feel bad about abusing the hell out of them haha....

[Kloubek]

Yeah, I find some are actually quite acceptable, and some are simply... not. Since there is often little in the way of reviews or information for what are essentially knock-off tires, it is hard to know what you'd be getting.

Even the best tires end up with issues sometimes like feathering or cupping, so one can assume the cheap tires have an even higher chance of such wear and/or construction issues.

I'm pretty thrifty, and have used Kijiji many times for used tires (have a set on both my Jeep and my wife's car), but I tend to stick with the name brand tires. Especially when it comes to winter tires.